where to go in the south pacific

[scuba e]

My wife and I love the waters in the Caribbean but we can hear the call of the soft coral in the South Pacific.
We are looking for advise on where to go. Here is what we want:
10-14 days including travel time. Mostly reef quality and macro life are concerns.
We average 4+ dives a day so topside activity is not an issue. On the other hand quality of food is.
I have been looking at a few places in Fiji as well as Wakatobi (this would be our high end choice). Please let us know your thoughts.
Thank you,
e

 

[mjh]

We have always done live-aboards with a few days of land tours at the start or end of trip. Fiji is great and PNG is amazing. There are trip reports at my site that may help.

 

[DesertEagle]

In September I did a week of diving in Fiji and it was awesome. I used Kai Viti Divers, who are based on the Wananavu resort. The location is a 2-3 hour drive from the airport, so you won't have to worry about additional flights. This is liveaboard-quality diving, but with only two dives a day. If you go there, you can expect to see all types of soft corals and quite a few hard corals. It is more colorful than anything I've seen in the Caribbean, and rivals what I've seen in the Red Sea. This is wide angle diving, but there is no shortage of small animals to photograph.

Wakatobi is supposed to be excellent, if you don't mind the travel time.

Eric Cheng, the editor of Wetpixel has galleries from his visits to both areas. I would take a look at his site www.echeng.com

 

[divenut2001]

My wife and I love the waters in the Caribbean but we can hear the call of the soft coral in the South Pacific.
We are looking for advise on where to go. Here is what we want:
10-14 days including travel time. Mostly reef quality and macro life are concerns.
We average 4+ dives a day so topside activity is not an issue. On the other hand quality of food is.
I have been looking at a few places in Fiji as well as Wakatobi (this would be our high end choice). Please let us know your thoughts.
Thank you,
e

I have just one word for you:

"PALAU"

 

[scuba e]

Thanks to all and keep em coming.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Palau is some of the best diving in the region: huge walls, lots of big fish (sharks, mantas), a few wreaks, an interesting cave.

Truk/Chuuk, also in Micronesia, is my favourite dive location: an entire Japanese fleet sunk within a coral atoll in WWII. The wreaks have become reefs and offer excellent diving.

For macro nothing beats Lembeh in Indonesia.

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[almitywife]

Solomans and PNG is my choice

otherwise a yes to Micronesia... we did Yap in april and no thinking about either Truk or Palau..... too many islands

 

[Kevrumbo]

In my travels & experience so far in SE Asia/Micronesia:
Inexpensive, best for the US Dollar: Thailand & Philippines.
Best for Pelagics and Wall/Drift Diving: Palau
Muck Diving for cool-looking Critters: PNG (and Lembeh this coming December).
Best for Wrecks: Chuuk and South China Sea out of Singapore.
If You Love Turtles: Sipadan
And for Soft Coral: Fiji; and believe it or not --the Chuuk Wrecks have a lot of beautiful soft coral on them as well. . .

 

[Allison Finch]

PNG PNG PNG

Enough said

 

[Kevrumbo]

PNG (take your anti-malarial meds); PNG (use a lot of DEET spray/lotion); PNG (treat clothes with permethrin); PNG (bring a portable free-standing mosquito net)
--And hopefully you won't get Dengue Fever like I did!

Absolutely fantastic diving like Allison said; I'll be heading to Lembeh, Halmaherah and Raja Ampat (West Papua Indonesian side of New Guinea) this December:
http://www.odysseadivers.com/ver2/media_video.php